08/12/2008

Loyalist Killer Gets 16 Years For Stormont Attack

Convicted loyalist killer, Michael Stone - who was found guilty of attempted murder last month - has today been jailed for 16 years.

He was convicted for trying to murder Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams at Stormont.

Mr Justice Deeney delivered his judgment during November in a non-jury case heard at Belfast Crown Court.

Stone was also convicted of other charges, including possession of weapons and explosive devices. He will be sentenced later.

Stone had attempted to enter Stormont during a key debate on Northern Ireland devolution in November 2006.

Stone had denied the charges, claiming the incident was "performance art".

The trial heard he pointed an imitation gun at a female security guard, ignited an improvised explosive device in a flight bag and threw it some yards from him.

The bag contained explosive fireworks, flammable liquids, a butane gas canister and fuses. It failed to explode.

He was found to have seven nail bombs which the court heard were capable of causing death or serious injury to anyone in their proximity.

Stone also had three knives, a hatchet and a garrotte.

In 2000, Stone was released early from a life sentence under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

He had been jailed for a 1988 gun and grenade attack on the republican funeral at Milltown Cemetery of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar.

Three men were killed in that attack and Stone also admitted three other murders.

See: Stone Guilty

(BMcC)

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